


This Screaming Wind

by AsphorFell



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Paarthurnax, F/M, Yandere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 15:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18702745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsphorFell/pseuds/AsphorFell
Summary: Volba is lost after killing Alduin. Paarthurnax gives her new purpose.





	This Screaming Wind

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request by my good buddy @veninos, a fic with the dragonborn and Paarthurnaax, and it became yandere because…yandere dragons, yo.
> 
> So, full disclosure- I’m not too big a fan of skyrim. Frankly I feel like the combat’s kinda janky and I don’t like dying all the time, and somehow I keep stumbling into Falmer and Dwemer machines so it’s frustrating. I’ve gotten far enough in the story to meet Paarthurnaax exactly once in a playthrough. I tried to cobble his personality together with youtube and the wiki but that’s why this is kinda titchy.
> 
> Hope you like it, my dude.

Her destiny was to defeat Alduin.

And she did.

She did what she was born to do, had fixed everything.

But what do you do when the story’s over?

It felt appropriate to return to the Throat of the World, to have her final words with Paarthurnax before flying off into the sunset to who knows where.

Her first time on the mountain, she’d been afraid, confused and angry. She’d swallowed a soul, absorbed her first shout by accident, saved a town. Volba was no novice to fighting, but even an orc had limits to what they could accept in the timespan of a few hours. She been tired and cold from the journey up the mountain, and the Greybeard had ushered her to meet Alduin.

She’d never expected the massive dragon.

And here she was again, a little older, a lot more experienced, a lot more tired.

It felt appropriate that her first meeting with him had taken place by dawn’s light, while this good-bye happened under the moon’s watchful eye. The snow whipped around them as Paarthurnax descended from his perch to rest himself before her.

“I won.” She announced. Eerily Paarthurnax seemed to smile at her.

“So you have. And yet you do not sound pleased.” Mused the great dragon, and Volba could only shrug at that. She wasn’t in the habit of lying; that was one thing that couldn’t be denied about her.

“Well what’s next?” She asked uncertainly, crossing her arms. “The story ends with evil defeated, but I’m still alive, Paarthurnax.”

“You are, and many have died. You will live, and that will be enough.”

“It can’t be that easy.” She laughed over the wind, but his eyes were intense burning coals focused only on her. She shivered in the cold.

“Why can’t it? The danger is over already- and now you have the happy ending.”

But was it happy?

Her companions had their lives to get back to now, lives away from her.

“What about you? What’s your happy ending?” She couldn’t help but wonder.

The ancient dragon noticed her shivering; Volba was silent as the elder being wrapped himself around her, shielding her from the bite and warming her with his scales.

“With Alduin gone perhaps now my kin will begin to recover.” His breath smelled like, well, smoke and accelerant, and Volba made a face at the smell of it. “Without his dominion, I will unite them and they will bow to the power of my thu’um,”

“Bow?” She repeated in confusion.

“They will need leadership if they are to become strong again,” he explained calmly, as though what he was saying weren’t…terrifying.

Paarthurnax had been her ally, he’d told her what she was, where her powers came from, got her started on her journey. Volba had defeated Alduin on his word. And now here he was, uprooting all of her beliefs.

She’d just…just assumed he was what he seemed- a neutrally good party, removed from the situation but willing to offer advice. Why had she thought that?

When Volba took a step back she found herself against the great wall of his tail, stuck in place. She wanted to Shout, but the words were stuck- she regretted leaving Shadowmere at the bottom of the mountain to graze now.

“Will you kill me, Paarthurnax?” She managed to ask over the screaming storm.

The great dragon threw his head back and _laughed_.

The sound was probably the most frightening thing she’d ever heard.

“No little Speaker, I will not. You are destined for something else.”

The Voice welled up inside her, begging her to Shout, to say the words, but she was so so _tired_.

“I’ll stop you.” She promised instead, closing her eyes when he leaned in close. But at the gentle (was that _nuzzling_?) she received, she opened them again. Paarthurnax just sighed, and sh gagged on the smell of his breath.

“Little Speaker your duty is done- Alduin is dead. But you stand here, tired and alone- where are you companions and your worshippers now, Little Speaker, that you stray here in the snow still reeking of the blood of my kin.”

Fuck, she hadn’t thought about that, that maybe the great dragon might smell the violence on her.

“You wouldn’t be able to stop me as you are, and we know that. So why try?”

“You set me on one evil Dragon- why can’t I stop another?”

He nuzzled her again, his expression fond. “Oh, but I am not evil. You’ve seen what mortals are doing, have done- so much unnecessary cruelty and war, Little Speaker. Once my kind ruled and there was peace- and there will be again. Our rise will be swift and peace will return.” When Volba opened her mouth he continued, “and you will be at my side, Little Speaker.” The words got caught and she coughed.

What?

_What?_

“You’re joking.”

“The world isn’t kind to heroes once their story is done, Little Speaker. Rest, leave the fighting to me.”

“I thought you were here to avoid the temptation of power, Paarthurnax.” She taunted, trying to shake off the way that those words made her feel.

“It’s not for the sake of power I do this, Little Speaker, but for the good of the world- chaos has descended and order will rise. And you will witness this peace at my side.”

 And she could see it. Paarthurnax was wise, he was non violent, he was ancient.

She thought of the wars and the racism and the hate- dragons  _had_ ruled once, hadn't they? There'd been shrines, religions, entire cults dedicated to them. 

When she didn't argue, didn't protest, the ancient one made a pleased sound.

"You will want for nothing, Speaker. At my side you will see peace and know nothing but joy."

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me over on tumblr:  
> [elandvary](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/elandvary)


End file.
